Lyndon Johnson Administration:
Give Just Enough To Israel

(March 13, 1965)

Komer feels the United
States has made a good deal with Israel. The
United States is giving Israel what they want,
which they do not feel will upset the Arab
world to much. Komer is also confident that
Israel will not try to make side deals to
get more weapons.

190. Memorandum From Robert
W. Komer of the National Security Council
Staff to President Johnson/1/

Mission to Israel. I hope I'm right
in saying that we finally got from the Israelis
the essentials of what you wanted--their agreement
to sit still on Jordan arms in return for
some tanks and planes. State almost fouled
us up again by rewriting the contract at the
eleventh hour, but we got over that hurdle
too. My final cable (attached)/2/ sums up
the matter.

What really broke the logjam was our shifting
(Mac tells me on your judgment) from a broad
package understanding, which was simply too
much to negotiate quickly, to a much more limited
deal. Once we called their hand this way, and
were prepared to talk hardware, they tried to
shift back. However, Eshkol quickly settled
when I told him first that we were going ahead
with Jordan and then showed him concretely just
what we were prepared to do for him.

On this last point, I was grateful that McNamara
and Bundy accepted my recommendation we talk
24 planes instead of 20. This bit of give
will cost us nothing in terms of any Arab
reaction (24 is as bad as 20), yet it got
us past the point of making Israel so strictly
comparable to Jordan that the Israelis could
cry foul. Nor will these necessarily have
to be US planes.

I also taped down that (a) we don't want
to see any Israelis here for six to eight
weeks--this should buy us at least four; (b)
attempted backdoor negotiating with the White
House through unofficial emissaries hurts
more than it helps; and (c) we will flatly
oppose both premature jumping of the Arabs
over water and Israel going nuclear. As a
bonus, we got a written promise on the latter,
for what promises are worth.

While I may be prejudiced (and also too tired
to see the matter in the round), I think we
finally came out all right--and without giving
more than we'd have to give sooner or later
anyway to our Israeli friends.